History Lessons – The Meeker Cemetery, Pt. 1

I wanted to title this series as “All You Ever Wanted to Know About Cemeteries” by Digger O’Dell. Digger O’Dell was a character in the 1945 radio program and later TV series, “The Life of Riley.” He was known as the Friendly Undertaker who quipped morbid puns. His exit line was “Cheerio, I’d better be… shoveling off.” I want to write a series of articles on the cemeteries of Rio Blanco. Before I can do that, I need to break the habit of spelling cemetery instead of “cemetary.” Thank God for spell check! 

Before 1879, when the Army established the Camp on the White River, bodies were pretty much buried close to where they expired. Unless that spot was close to a habitation or water source. That would not be hygienic. It’s not known to us where the Ute tribe buried their dead. When the Camp on the White River was established, a burial ground was set aside north and east of the camp. Between 1879 and 1883, there were few deaths at the camp. Only two soldiers were buried there: Richard Smith, Company A of the Fifth Cavalry and William Cavanaugh of Company L, third Cavalry, who died here, murdered by fellow Private Gerald Carpenter.  A  few other non-military people were buried there. Civilian employee William Wallace and camp followers Minnie Benway, Mary Brown (colored), infant P.S. Baker, son of a laundress; Dugan, infant son of Q.M employee; Frank Day, colored citizen; Martha Walsh, wife of ranchman; Jordan, Infant daughter of laundress; and John Mooney, son of laundress. 

Camp followers were sometimes family of enlisted men, more often they were “professional women” comforting lonely soldiers. They were probably living in some of the dugouts that lined the north bank of the White River. The dugouts were reported washed away in a later flood. The two soldiers were removed in December of 1886 and reinterred at Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Nebraska. In 1883, after the Camp on the White River was abandoned, the new settlement of Meeker just continued the use of the same burial ground. 

With the 1885 upgrade from Meeker, the settlement, to Meeker, the newly incorporated Meeker Town Company, came respectability and a newspaper, The Meeker Herald. In the town plat, the old post burial ground was located on block 41. The wild west town soon grew and James Lyttle, editor of the Meeker Herald, began shaming the town fathers for having a cemetery inhibiting population growth. I am sure the fact that the Meeker Town Company might have been having trouble selling city lots next to dead bodies had nothing to do with the decision to move them. 

A town committee was formed to find a solution. In December 1891, the Meeker Cemetery Association was formed and officers were elected. A.C. Moulton, President; P.F. Welch, V.P.; F.N. Johantgen, secretary; S. Porges Treasurer.  J. W. Hugus of Pasadena, California, owned 25 of the 100 shares. Land was purchased south of the White River, up on the mesa. Plots were sold. 

The new cemetery was not yet named when its first occupant arrived by wagon. His name was Pleasant Peter Harp, known locally as “Pete” and he was part of the Harp clan who operated a stage line connecting Meeker, Rifle and Craig to the world beyond. Pete died Dec. 8, 1891, and according to Episcopal Church records was formally laid to rest in the “Meeker Lookout Cemetery” on Dec. 9. John W. McCracken, Ruth Rock and James Dougherty Goff followed in 1892. In January 1893, Mrs. J.H. Gillmor was “buried in the new cemetery.” In  March of 1893, Mrs. Sarah C. Wright (owner of the Meeker Hotel) died in Meeker, but her will demanded that her body be buried back East with family. In June 1893, an infant who only lived five hours was laid to rest. The baby was the son of local doctor W.H. Young who was laid to rest many years later in a grave near the baby. 

I hope to include other Rio Blanco cemeteries in the future. I need the help of the readers to provide me clues to some of the private ones scattered around, especially Rangely.

By ED PECK

NOTE: Updated to reflect that the editor of the Meeker Herald referenced in this story was James Lyttle, not his son Richard, who took over the paper after his father.